Hunting for news

Ever intended to clip an interesting article from the paper but forget to do so before it disappeared in the recycling bin?

Ever had to do research on a person or company from out of town but couldn't find anything in the library or even through Internet search engines?

All is not lost, thanks to the many newspapers on the World Wide Web that keep online archives of past editions.

If a wire story about something that happened in San Francisco piques your interest, for example, all you have to do is visit the Examiner's Web site and see the unabridged original coverage.

If you tossed that paper into the recycle pile, it's not too late -- find the paper's site on the Internet, then do a search in the archives.

If the subject of your search hails from suburban Maryland, stop by The Washington Post's Web site and search the archives for anything that's ever been written about the person or business you're researching.

Many newspapers offer free searches for the previous two weeks or so. Quite a few papers charge a fee to pull up older articles. I've never used such a service; I'm usually able to find the information I need some other way.

Here are a few good hunting grounds.

The News Hunt: "http://saturn.vcu.edu/~pdattalo/np_searc..." This site from Virginia Commonwealth University's journalism school offers links to a number of major newspapers. It's a good starting point.

The Washington Post: "http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/..." Visitors here will find archives going back two weeks for both Post articles and Associated Press articles.

The New York Times: "http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/" A great paper, but it's a bit stingy in giving away old articles. This site offers a search of the current day's paper. To get older papers, there's a fee.

Total News: "http://www.totalnews.com" This handy search engine will pull up old articles from numerous newspapers. It's worth a visit.

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